


For Heaven's Sake

by CaffeinaShips



Category: Supernatural
Genre: F/F, poorly written antics, references to cannon character deaths, sex is alluded to, some boob grabbing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-07-14 13:40:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16041596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaffeinaShips/pseuds/CaffeinaShips
Summary: Charlie wakes up dead, makes some new Heavenly friends, and discovers romance can be to die for. Also there's a heist.





	For Heaven's Sake

**Author's Note:**

> I have had the first part of this story sitting in a folder for a while, and finally was motivated to pin the heist on at the end. If it seems a little Frankenstein-ish that's because it's a poorly written romance with a poorly written adventure grafted on. And just like Dr. Frankenstein I have created this monster and now don't want to look at it. Truly the real monster is the friends we make along the way.

Charlie had to admit, begrudgingly, that Heaven was pretty great. Waking up dead wasn't great, getting stabbed to death wasn't great, but after some initial suspicion Heaven turned out to be a cool place to hang out after all. In Heaven, day and night are tied to the memory you're in at any particular moment, so almost immediately Charlie lost her sense of time. Everything had a pleasant, dreamy quality to it. On first arrival, Charlie lay in bed and listened to her parents read The Hobbit four times through. There is no necessity in Heaven, so eating and sleeping are for pleasure and at the soul's discretion. Charlie snuggled into her childhood pillow and asked her parents to keep reading. And asked and asked. And they always did. When they got to the end she asked them to start over. And they always did. 

After Charlie tired of this memory she wandered the timeline of her life. She mapped out all of the stops in her brain like a subway map. She followed it as far as she could and then back again. Once she knew what to expect, once she understood the process of moving from memory to memory, she relaxed. The idea of spending eternity in a choose-your-own adventure of her greatest hits didn't seem so bad.

Of course she was still Charlie, so she almost immediately started testing limits. She changed little things by asking her parents for new foods, new books, or a Playstation 4. They always went out and got them. Initially she'd been surprised to find that the name Charlie Bradbury followed her to Heaven. Everyone, even her parents, called her Charlie. She figured it was because that was the identity that felt the most true to her. It was a pretty sweet life overall, surrounded by loved ones, good books, video games, eating and sleeping when the mood struck her, and wandering through her timeline. She had the whole expanse of her life in front of her, from her earliest memories to her last days at the bunker. Oz was even in there, if she wanted to go. 

During one lovely summer afternoon Charlie was riding her bike down a country road with her best friend from being 10-years-old. They were flying fast, free, and happy. The sun was shining and the breeze was blowing their hair back as they raced each other down the middle of the road. Charlie loved this memory. There were few feelings as blissful in her life as that early freedom a bicycle granted her. This road was between Charlie's childhood home and her best friend's home. They would ride the fifteen minutes back and forth from each other's houses all day, just to have a reason to keep riding. Ten-year-old Charlie didn't have the language to label this friendship as her first real crush, but Charlie had thought the world of her and they had been inseparable for years before the accident that took away Charlie's parents. Today, Charlie was reveling in the innocence and the joy of this period of her life. 

At the bottom of a little hill where the road straightened out Charlie flew past a stranger by the side of the road. A middle aged brunette woman was standing calmly, watching them. If this hadn't been Heaven Charlie would have crashed her bike and broken something. She stopped her bike in the middle of the road and immediately turned around to peddle back toward the mystery woman who continued to smile at Charlie as if they were old friends. Never before had there been a stranger in heaven, yet here she was, in jeans, a tee, and an open button-up shirt. She stopped in front of the stranger, her friend forgotten, and dropped her bike. The woman smiled warmly.

"Hello, Charlie"

Charlie stared. It had been so long since she'd seen a stranger, her people skills had gotten a bit rusty. The stranger held out her hand and Charlie shook it.

"My name is Ellen. I believe we have some friends in common. I'm here to show you around Heaven."

"Friends...in common?"

"Yep," Ellen's smile broadened. "The Winchesters"

Charlie laughed a little. It'd been a while since she thought of Sam and Dean. Now she hoped they were holding up.

"Oh yeah, we're friends. They got me killed in fact."

"That happens to a lot of us. Come on, I'll introduce you."

Ellen stepped behind a nearby maple tree and out of sight. Charlie followed Ellen around the tree and found a rectangle of white. Charlie looked around it and behind it. She definitely had never seen anything like this in Heaven before. It seemed impossibly thin, invisible from the side, and, from behind, it disappeared. You could only see it if you were facing it directly. Ellen stuck her head out of it, creating the effect of a disembodied head and half a torso.

"You coming?"

Charlie didn't need another invite, she stepped through.

As soon as Charlie stepped into the other side she was hit by the sound of people erupting into cheers and applause. They were in a seedy looking bar half full of strangers. Most of them were grinning at her.

"Don't worry about them," Ellen grinned and gestured around the room. "It's always exciting when we get a new face around here. We've been aware of your death for some time," Ellen explained. "We always keep an eye out for deaths associated with the Winchesters. When we get one we generally wait a bit of time to let them adjust, and then we pick 'em up and introduce ourselves. We've got something of an informal club going. Can I get you a drink?"

"These are all people connected to Sam and Dean?" Charlie was of course aware that they had tragic backstories, but seeing a big collection of their dead friends and family all in one place kind of drove it home for her.

"We sure are!"

A pretty young blond woman was half sitting on a table to Charlie's right.

"Charlie, meet my daughter Jo. Jo, honey, this is Charlie Bradbury."

Jo shook Charlie's hand warmly as Ellen headed behind the bar.

"Those Winchesters leave quite a body count in their wake. Lucky for us, this is Heaven, and there are no grudges in Heaven. You have to stay angry to hold a grudge, and it's not like it’s so bad being here. Especially when we get a new member in our little group."

Ellen returned with a beer for Charlie and began introductions. There were a lot of people around the bar: playing poker, playing pool, drinking, laughing, and talking. Hunters, civilians, and family. Everyone shook her hand or patted her on the back. They did seem genuinely pleased to meet another Winchester associate. While she enjoyed meeting everyone, there were two who stood out immediately. 

The first was Ash. When Charlie was introduced to Ash, Ellen called him "our resident Heaven hacker" which was a very intriguing title to Charlie. Ash had a chaotic work space on an old pool table in the back of the bar. There were a variety of computer monitors, old TV's, and pieces of disassembled equipment spread all over it. He had been hunched over what appeared to be an old 90's era computer monitor watching symbols flash by and taking copious notes. When he turned to face her she was put off for half a second by the mullet and the denim shirt with the sleeves ripped off. He shook her hand.

"I've been waiting for another genius to show up and help me with my mayhem, and from what I've heard you're my girl!" 

He actually used finger guns, which Charlie found weirdly endearing.

"When you're settled and ready, come find me and I'll teach you how to do some damage here."

Very intriguing to Charlie.

Once introductions were complete Charlie went directly back to Ash to ask him about the symbols on his monitor. Ash, true to his word, let her in on his mayhem. Charlie and Ash were both brilliant, creative, tech-minded people who were always in trouble and never did what others expected. They both loved testing systems and getting around rules. Ash taught her Enochian right away. He explained to her that Heaven ran something like a self-sustaining virtual reality using Enochian magic words instead of binary code. He taught her that Enochian had three forms: written, spoken, and prayer, and that each had their own benefits and disadvantages. He showed her how he used Enochian to rig up a screen to alert them to the death of another Winchester connection and to pinpoint the location of that Heaven. He taught her to create the doors that allowed people to move from their own Heavens to The Roadhouse and back again.

Each Heaven connected to a Winchester would have a door embedded in it somewhere that people used to travel between The Roadhouse and 'Home'. That's what they all called their personal Heavens. Someone would throw down their cards or finish their drink and announce "alright, that's it for me. I'm heading Home, see ya later" and leave. People were coming and going all the time. 

Ash explained to Charlie that The Roadhouse was actually multiple Roadhouses in multiple people’s Heavens. The actual Roadhouse had been much smaller than the one that Charlie was seeing. After Ash learned of the deaths of Ellen and Jo he had immediately visited each of them in their Heavens. He wasn't surprised to find them sitting in Roadhouses identical to his. Once he started Heaven hopping with Jo and Ellen, they quickly located Ellen's husband William. He, of course, also had a Roadhouse. Ash came up with the idea to overlap the separate Heavens and create one large Roadhouse. It was a tricky thing, Ash told Charlie, to bend and twist a whole Heaven without distorting the rest of the time-line, but obviously it could be done. And it made for a much less cramped club.

Charlie was, obviously, a quick study and soon she and Ash were improving the doors and creating new systems. The prayer aspect made hacking Heaven different than hacking a computer. Intention and focus was as important as the correct symbols. It required her to adapt her approach to problem solving, but she picked it up quickly. Charlie also really enjoyed it. She really liked working with Ash and having fresh new challenges. Problems to tinker with vastly improved her experience of Heaven.

People didn't travel between each other's Heaven's much, but it was a useful skill to have. Charlie spent a lot of time in Ash's Heaven because he had another workspace in a van parked behind the bar. Ash never visited Charlie's Heaven because there wasn't really anything there that interested him, and Charlie never invited him. People only traveled to the Heavens of people they were really close with because being in someone else's Heaven was a little like being told about someone else's dream. You really had to be invested in the person and care about them for the environment to make much sense to you. It was weird being in someone's heaven when their memories involved other people. Those memory people wouldn't really acknowledge or see you. It was the weirdest displaced feeling of unreality. Like being invisible to all but one person, and to the world itself.

Ash and Charlie were both acutely aware that this blissful life was a very, very elaborate virtual existence, a fact reinforced to them every time they found a new way to screw with it. They also knew that the Angels had the power to pull the bliss right out of it. The Angels could not dismantle a Heaven entirely, but they could mangle an individual Heaven until it was a personal Hell. The Angels had no reason to bother them, and they had no interest in interacting with the Angels, but you never know. A kind, benevolent, uninvolved dictator is a dictator nonetheless, and Charlie and Ash were not the sort to trust an authority.

This became all the more pronounced for Charlie when Ash showed her the FUBAR Button and told her the story of the only time he'd used it. The FUBAR button, when pressed, would separate The Roadhouse to its original separate Heavens, blast every soul in The Roadhouse back to their individual Heavens, and close all the doors. Ash had created it immediately after overlapping the Roadhouses. It wasn't the sort of thing he could really test, so until he had needed it he had just hoped it would work.

FUBAR day came out of the blue for everyone but Bobby. Ash had noticed Bobby wasn't playing poker with Rufus, Bill Harvelle, and John Winchester like he usually would be. Instead he was sitting at the bar, just seeming to take it all in. Ash noticed this because Ash notices everything, but Ash didn't make anything of it. After a couple hours of quietly watching the bar, Bobby had turned to leave without saying a word and walked out the door. A couple hours later Ash's angel radio had burst into action.

"Holy Shit!" Ash had announced, "Holy Shit!"

He began frantically translating as much as he could as fast as he could for the increasingly appalled and bewildered crowd.

"There's been a prison break in Heaven. Someone stole Metatron! It was Bobby! Bobby created some kind of distraction. Shit! The Angels have Bobby! They're sticking him in Angel jail and they're pissed! Oh fuck, the Angels are coming, the Angels are coming here!"

Ash slammed the FUBAR button and The Roadhouse broke apart. He had the space of a breath to find his bearings back in his van in his own Heaven before an Angel appeared. Ash was calm as could be. He knew no one would mention the doors or The Roadhouse Club and no one had seemed to know what Bobby had been planning. The Angel asked a lot of pointed questions about the Winchesters, but Ash could legitimately say he hadn't seen or heard from them since the last time they died. He had no new info to contribute to their dilemma. And that was the truth. 

After the Angel left, Ash stuck close to his angel radio. He waited until he was sure the Angels had moved on and lost interest, then he rebuilt the door to Ellen. She reported the same interview with an Angel and nothing more, so Ash started rebuilding The Roadhouse clubhouse. This time he was careful to work in the FUBAR button from the start. Shortly after The Roadhouse and crew were reassembled, Ellen went to Collect Charlie from her Heaven. They had left her in her own Heaven without contacting her longer than usual because they had to be sure they were safe once more. As far as anyone knew, and as far as Ash could tell from Angel radio, Bobby was still sitting in a cell somewhere inside Angel prison.

Charlie took all of this in gravely. People would get really quiet and shake their heads when the topic of Bobby would come up. Everyone missed him, but no one knew what to do about it. Charlie still loved her Heaven and it still felt like home, but The Roadhouse felt more real to her. If Heaven was a dream she was having at least The Roadhouse was lucid dreaming. She had no doubt the Angels would take it away from her in an instant and she had no intention of giving them the chance.

The second person Charlie connected with was Pamela Barnes. 

During the introductions at The Roadhouse, Ellen presented her to a group of people playing darts. A friendly looking guy named Andy, a former hunter named Annie, a guy named Victor that everyone kept calling "Agent", and Pamela Barnes. The first thing Charlie saw was Pamela and Victor, their backs to Charlie and Ellen. She watched as Pamela ran a hand along Victor's arm and whispered something in his ear in an attempt to distract his shot. Whatever it was made him stand up a little straighter, but his shot was dead on. Pamela let out a groan of disappointment and smacked Victor's ass. Annie and Pamela shrugged at each other while Andy did a little happy dance.

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you to Charlie Bradbury?"

Ellen put her hands on Charlie's shoulders and nudged her forward slightly. Introductions were made. Hands were shook. Charlie could almost swear she saw Pamela look her over. Pamela was the last to introduce herself. She grinned at Charlie in a way that looked at once inviting and a bit predatory. Charlie was now absolutely sure Pamela was checking her out. Not even subtly, either.

"You any good at darts? We're always looking for fresh blood to play with."

Charlie nervously pushed her hair behind her ear and smiled back.

"I've thrown a few, but I'm pretty crappy honestly."

Pamela took a drink from her beer and kept her eyes on Charlie.

"That's alright honey, I'm a good teacher. I'll get you in shape in no time."

"You might be a good teacher," 'Agent' Victor joked, "but you're a terrible shot. And it's your turn."

Pamela winked at Charlie (actually winked at her!) and turned her back to them to resume the game. Charlie let Ellen lead her on to the next table full of people and the next introduction. Charlie was flustered. This was a new development she hadn't considered. Could there be dating in Heaven? Did souls date? Apparently they flirted...

When formal introductions were complete Charlie was left curious about two things; hacking Heaven and flirting with a woman in tight jeans. As usual in Charlie's life, intellectual curiosity won out and she made her way back to Ash. Once Charlie was engrossed in learning Enochian she didn't think about much else until she could understand the basics.

After an unknowable amount of time hunched over notebooks and computer screens, Ash suddenly stood up straight, stretched his arms over his head and then clapped Charlie on the back.

"You catch on really fast for the newly deceased and I aint complainin, but we've gotta take it easy, don't wanna fry the ole gray matter like this was M.I.T. Time for a break. Shots! Do you like shots? Forget I asked. Everyone likes shots."

And Ash was escorting her to the front of the bar. They sat together at the table closest to the bar. Charlie's head was buzzing with new knowledge. She felt fuzzy and slow, but she was sure she could have kept going if Ash had let her. Learning something new from scratch was so rewarding she felt driven to continue. Ash leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the table. Ellen appeared.

"What can I bring you two a bottle of?"

"We'll take a bottle of your finest anything that's whiskey."

He put his hands behind his head and managed to recline further. Charlie wasn't really listening. She was tracing Enochian symbols on the table top with her finger trying to catalog and organize all of the new information in her brain. She loved being in the zone with a new project. She was aware of a bottle being set on the table and a glass of brown liquid being pushed toward her. She heard the sound of chairs scraping as people sat.

"You gotta take the shot," Ash chided her, "and it's rude not to look at someone during a toast. Works over for the day. Now we drink."

Charlie picked up the glass and looked at Ash. She jumped a little and splashed a bit of whiskey on her hand. Jo and Pamela had joined them at the table, and all three were looking at her. Pamela made eye contact with Charlie and raised her own shot glass.

"Cheers to our new resident genius!"

They all lifted their drinks and emptied their glasses. The whiskey tasted like whiskey, but it gave Charlie pause.

"Wait, can we even get drunk in Heaven? Do we even still metabolize alcohol? Are we drinking just for the taste? I mean, it’s a good taste, but still..."

Ash tapped the table with his glass and pointed at Charlie.

"Good question. Intoxicants in Heaven work on prayer coding. As long as you drink, you can will yourself to be almost any amount of drunk just by wanting it. Just not a fatal amount of drunk. But you can be pretty damn blackout drunk. Believe me, I've tested the limits. You can also sober up just about immediately by wanting to be sober. No hangovers in Heaven."

Jo grabbed the bottle and started refilling everyone's glass. When she passed Pamela her shot, Pamela downed it immediately. Charlie watched as Pamela put one foot on a chair in front of her, leaned back, and emptied the glass. Oh dear. Charlie hurriedly looked away and downed her own shot. When the booze hit her mouth she focused on wanting to be pleasantly tipsy. Almost immediately she found herself smiling and feeling much warmer inside. Jo was refilling glasses again. Charlie was pretty sure the level of liquid in the bottle had not changed with the last two pours. The bottle was self-filling.

"Ash had to teach us how to get drunk," Jo giggled a bit and looked a little flushed already. "We were just experiencing our memories however drunk or sober they were at the time we lived them. Ash figured out the key was wishing and now we're all drunks with immortal livers."

Pamela laughed. She had one of the easiest, most mirthful sounding laughs Charlie had ever heard. 

"That's pretty lucky for me since I died getting stabbed in my liver. I think it's earned some fun."

"Me too!" Charlie chimed in sounding to herself a little too eager. Come on Charlie, be cool. 

"Well, I mean, probably. I got stabbed lots of places... in the... general ... torso area."

She took her next shot and willed her drunk level up a notch. This was definitely not her smoothest pick up and now she knew it was possible to blush in Heaven. She was clearly out of practice. How had she ever picked up women in life? She looked at Pamela’s long dark hair, playful smile, and snug fitting tee and wondered if she’d ever met any women as mind erasingly sexy as Pamela in life. 

"Well" Pamela put her foot down and leaned across the table toward Charlie for a toast., "Here's to life after livers!"

Charlie held out her glass and Pamela clinked hers against it. They emptied their drinks again.

To Charlie's surprise it turns out everyone in Heaven loves telling their death stories. Of course everyone at the table and in the bar had heard each other's, but Charlie was new, and she would listen with fresh ears and rapt attention. And no one knew Charlie's story. They pestered Charlie to share the details and they were gratifyingly impressed.

"Wow, stabbed to death in a bathtub by a Frankenstein. Nicely done." Ash was grinning at her with apparent pride.

"And what about you?" Charlie used the liquid courage she'd prayed for to smile at Pamela, "How'd you go out? Blaze of glory I assume? Honorable battle and all that?"

Pamela grinned wickedly, "Oh you know it."

The others had heard Pamela's story many times but listened politely. Charlie was suitably impressed. Stabbed by demons while saving reapers to try to prevent the apocalypse, fighting them blind. That's pretty bad-ass.

Ash launched into his story next. It was pretty short and quick. He pointed to the back corner workbench pool table. He'd been deciphering demon signs for the Winchesters and begun to establish a pattern around the door to hell. He had his notes and maps laid out on the table trying to put the last pieces together when a booming noise and a ball of fire filled The Roadhouse. He had a brief experience of pain before sitting up in his van. "Real Dead" as Ash described it.

Jo started to tell her story, "Yeah, torn apart by a Hell Hound trying to stop the apocalypse."

Charlie was definitely impressed and wanted to know more. Jo was happy to oblige until she started trying to tell the story. "We all gathered at Bobby's house..."

She trailed off and stopped. There was a moment of sullen silence while they looked at their glasses. Charlie hated it. She had always considered herself something of a vigilante and the injustice of being imprisoned in Heaven got under her skin. It was obvious that if most of the people sitting in this room had been contacted by the Winchesters instead of Bobby they would have been sitting in Angel jail in his place. She also hated the reminder that this utopia had serious elements of dystopia. She just wanted to be dead and happy about it. Why did she have to worry about injustice even in the afterlife?

Pamela heaved a sigh and held up her drink, "To Bobby."

"To Bobby," they echoed.

There was another moment of silence and then Jo asked Charlie if she'd been enjoying her Heaven. Of course she had, it's Heaven. They asked her if she'd visited all of her memories yet and she confessed that she had many left. Of the four of them only Ash had been to every one of his memories so far. He had been dead the longest and he was the most intensely curious about everything.

"I must have been to my first Ramones concert a hundred times since dying," Pamela laughed.

"I bet that was incredibly fun. I never really went to many concerts when I was alive," Charlie felt a little pang. "I guess it's a little late to be worrying about bucket lists now."

"I could take you," Pamela offered.

"What, to see the Ramones?"

"Sure, why not? I've been a few times. I've got some pretty clear memories. You could come with me. You could be my date."

Pamela leaned back and smiled.

Charlie took another shot and willed her drunk up a notch again, "Yeah, ok. That sounds fun."

It was fun. Stepping into someone else's heaven was incredibly disorienting at first, but Charlie quickly got used to it. In someone else's Heaven no one looks at you, no one speaks to you. You can walk through crowds or dance on a table and no one even glances. To Charlie it created the effect that Pamela was the most important thing in the world. The universe revolved around her and she seemed to stand out in every moment. Or maybe that was just Pamela.

They left for the concert immediately. Neither were capable of being tired and there was no need to change clothes, so they both decided now was the best time. They took one last shot, Pamela put her arm around Charlie's shoulders, and they walked through the Roadhouse door and onto a strip of crumbling sidewalk somewhere that looked rundown, like a small city down on its luck. Pamela took her arm off of Charlie's shoulders and walked a step in front to lead the way. They turned into an alley and suddenly it was night and they were standing in front of a club. Once they were in the door Pamela took Charlie's hand to keep them together in the crowd. They staked out a spot near the front. The concert was probably fantastic, but Charlie couldn’t take her eyes off of Pamela dancing.

After the show ended they wandered out to the side of the building where it was quiet and few people were milling around. Pamela rested her back against the grimy club wall and took Charlie's hand. She slid her other hand under Charlie's hair and rested it on the back of her neck. Pamela pulled Charlie to her and kissed her. Charlie laced her fingers into the belt loops of Pamela’s jeans and for a minute Pamela really was the center of Charlie’s universe.

They walked away from the crowds exiting the concert and back to the shockingly bright sunlight of the sidewalk. Charlie spotted the familiar rectangle of white by the edge of a strip mall parking lot. Like the end of most first dates there was an awkward moment standing in front of the door.

"Thanks for the concert."

"My pleasure." Pamela took Charlie’s hand again. “I'd love to see you again some time. I mean, I'll obviously see you at The Roadhouse, but I'd love to take you out again soon."

"Definitely. That'd be great!"

There was another awkward pause. Charlie impulsively grabbed Pamela's waist and kissed her first this time. Then they stepped through the door into the Roadhouse both grinning.

"See yah around," Pamela turned around and left the Roadhouse as soon as they were in.

Charlie hung around determined to master Enochian. Ash kept her busy and Charlie worked until her head was buzzing. When she finally collapsed into a chair rubbing her temples Pamela appeared next to her with a set of darts. A couple of dart lessons later and Charlie took Pamela to see The Princess Bride at the local theater from a memory Charlie made at 15. They spent most of the movie making out like teenagers.

They fell into an easy routine. Charlie and Ash would work until one of them declared they were done, they'd spend time with the crowd at The Roadhouse, Charlie and Pamela would go off together on a date. Pamela was one of Ash's best friends in Heaven. The three of them would sit in the bar with whoever else was around, drink, joke, and laugh. Sometimes they would play darts, pool, or cards, sometimes they'd just sit mostly in silence and watch the crowds, sometimes they would swap stories from their lives. It usually wouldn't be long before Ash was itching to get back to some project he had going, or some favor he was doing someone, and Pamela and Charlie would head out into the Heavens together.

The more Charlie and Ash created ways to work around Heaven's rules the more options Charlie and Pamela had for exploration. They often frequented the Heavens of strangers, and were able to travel to destinations, concerts, or scenic locations without even knowing who's Heaven they were in. They explored Niagara Falls, rain forests, the Grand Canyon, and the Great Barrier Reef. There are no sunburns in Heaven, so Charlie and Pamela spent long days swimming naked off of Caribbean beaches.

The time they spent alone in their separate Heavens gradually shrunk to almost nothing. Pamela stepped around Charlie's parents and made herself tea in the family kitchen with a comfortable familiarity. Charlie snuggled with Pamela on the couch in Pamela's living room, slipping a hand under her shirt and into her bra, without giving Pamela’s two older brothers a second look. Sometimes they would discuss the possibility of combining Heavens. Charlie had some ideas about running the country road of her Heaven into the rougher neighborhood sidewalk of Pamela's Heaven, but she wasn't quite brave enough to try it yet. Overall things were pretty perfect in Charlie's afterlife.

It was the end of a very long and generally successful bout of inventing. Pamela was sitting perched on Charlie's lap at a table at The Roadhouse. They'd been playing poker with John, Ash, and Rufus. Pamela and Charlie were losing badly because they were comparing cards, cheating, and not being subtle about it. The rest of the players had overheard their whispering and knew half their hands. Charlie was feeling a little tipsy and was really enjoying the game. John laughed at them over his beer.

"I haven't seen poker played that badly since the last time Bobby and I..."

There was the typical sullen silence as he trailed off. Charlie sobered up immediately. She'd been mulling this over for some time and now seemed like a good time to speak up.

"It just ain't right," Rufus was shaking his head. "Any one of us would have done the same damn thing if the Winchesters had come to us. Poor Bobby was just doing what we all know was right. It’s not fair that he lost his Heaven doing what any of us would have done." He took a long drink from a bottle of scotch that would have been impossibly expensive in life. 

Charlie shooed Pamela into her own chair and pulled herself closer to the table, "Yeah, I think I might have some thoughts on that."

Charlie layed out the plan for them. It was a little convoluted, it was dangerous, but if all went well it would end with Bobby safely smuggled out of Angel jail and hidden away in the Roadhouse. Ash and John would guard the Roadhouse and man the FUBAR button, Charlie, Rufus, and Ellen would sneak into the prison. Charlie would do the breaking and entering, Rufus would be back up and extra muscle, and Ellen would watch their backs. There was a quiet moment and then several voices erupted at once.

“Hold on, what’s my job in all of this” Pamela asked.

Jo and Ellen had been sitting at the next table and turned their chairs around to listen when Charlie started to describe her plan.

“There is No Way mamma’s doing something like this without me.”

“You didn’t answer my question, where am I in all this?”

“Do you even know if you can make a successful weapon against an angel?” John was skeptical. 

“Why do I stay here and man the damn button while you go have the adventure?” Charlie had expected this objection from Ash. 

“You planned a full fuckin heist and didn’t even include me?” Pamela’s voice was as cold as it was quiet. It cut through the chatter and silenced the crew. 

Suddenly Pamela was on her feet. She kicked the chair she’d been sitting on and strode off through the door without a glance back. It was what Charlie expected, but it hurt. 

For the moment she worked on soothing everyone else. Ash had to stay. He knew his workspace best and he was best equipped to handle an actual FUBAR should it happen. She would also need him to zap her and her team back to their Heavens should the shit indeed hit the celestial fan. No, they didn’t know that their weapons would work but the weapons were plan B. anyway. Plan A doesn’t involve fighting. Ellen and Jo couldn’t both go because an extra person superfluous to the plan would gum it up and be more danger than help.

“Jo honey, I let you take the big risk in life, and I watched you die. It’s my turn this time. I won’t risk you twice.” Ellen’s voice was kind, but made it clear the decision was made. 

Charlie left everyone with instructions to think it all over and went after Pamela. She found her sitting on the bed of the first apartment Pamela had ever lived in alone. It was here Pamela had really begun to see her psychic ability as a potential gift, and not just a terrifying force that would take her over against her will. It was a place of great freedom for Pamela, but also a place she had been very alone.

“I had to”

Charlie tried to start, but the words were not coming easily.

“I had to leave you out because otherwise I would be putting you at risk. I couldn’t do that.”

Pamela’s face was still a mask of fury. 

“Fuck your ‘had to’. Do you know what you are asking me to do? You want me to sit here, HELPLESS, while you go risk yourself? You want me to sit like some civil war soldier’s wife, watching the clock and wringing my hands while you march off to battle and I darn your socks?”

Pamela crossed from the bed to where Charlie stood in the middle of the room. Charlie took a half step back.

“Is that how you see me? Some useless side kick?”

Charlie’s immediate reaction to being yelled at was always cheerful snark in life. It made people crazy and men especially never knew how to handle it. She bit back a retort and tried to get a handle on her zig zagging emotions.

“In life my parents died because of a job I asked them to do. Soldiers died in Oz because of orders I gave them. When I tried to LARP for fun people died for that too. I’ve risked too much of other people’s lives. Too many people have died because I was so sure I knew what I was doing. I can’t put you out there. I can’t even imagine the plan in my head when you are in it because my brain freezes, and my hands go sweaty, and I get shaky, and I shut down. I’m asking my friends to risk their Heavens for my crazy ass plan. I can’t shut down. I can’t freeze up.”

Charlie spoke slowly trying to get the words around her tight throat and panicked voice. Pamela regarded her coldly.

“You can’t ask me to sit home and watch you march into potential prison, exile, or death by yourself.”

“I can. And I have. Please stay in your Heaven, please don’t get involved. I can’t think if you are in danger. It’s been so long since I had to risk anything. It’s been so long since I had to worry about someone. I don’t remember how. I’m a coward now. I’m scared. I’m. I.”

Charlie choked on tears. God, there was nothing worse than crying, especially crying out of fear. This was exactly what she’d been trying to avoid. 

Pamela relented and hugged Charlie tight. Charlie clung to her and cried into her shoulder. Pamela kissed her forehead, and kissed her teary cheeks. Charlie cupped Pamela’s face and kissed her desperately. The angry tension palpably drained from Pamela’s body, replaced by a new, heated tension. Pamela’s hands found their way to the hem of the Gryffindor Tee shirt Charlie was wearing and pulled it over Charlie’s head, she used the balled up tee briefly to wipe the remaining tears from Charlie’s cheeks. Charlie pulled open the buckle on Pamela’s belt. 

Well, Charlie thought as Pamela dragged her in the direction of the bed. At least the end of the world/make up sex was going to be amazing. 

The next period of time was a haze of preparations, planning, and frantic sometimes angry, sometimes loving sex. Pamela hadn’t forgiven her, and was still angry, but she had grudgingly agreed not to participate in the plan. 

Charlie and Ash were mostly sure they had worked out the combination of Enochian coding necessary to use spoken word, prayer, and carved word to turn a regular weapon into an angel blade, but with nothing to test it on they just had to rely on their track record of mostly being right. 

The most challenging part was breaking the code for the Axis Mundi that could allow them access to the prisons. They would need to create a door between the Roadhouse and the Axis just outside the door to the prison wing. They would then create a sort of copycat heaven program to mimic the prison wing and run just under it. They had based the copycat programs on old school Trojan computer viruses. Charlie’s team would have to very briefly step from the Roadhouse through the door into the Axis, and into a doorway on the other side leading to this Trojan prison. They could hide their souls from the programming, but they couldn’t hide themselves if an Angel happened to be standing right there and see them. It was designed to take a fraction of a second each, but it was the most exposed part. Once under the prison Charlie would have to take a door into the prison section to identify which cell Bobby was in. Charlie would then activate a door to drop Bobby into a Trojan version of his own Heaven that Charlie and Ash had designed to run under Bobby’s original Heaven. It was made to appear as one functioning heaven, but the new one would be unaffected by changes made to the original. And of course it would have a door to the roadhouse. Charlie would then drop back into the Trojan prison and activate a version of the FUBAR button that would blast the occupants of the Trojan prison back to their own Heavens and the Trojan prison would disappear. Again, with no way to test this version of the FUBAR, everyone in the tunnel would just have to hope. The participants would then wait for a visit from Ash to confirm that all was well and it was safe to return. 

Apart from the split second crossing the Axis Charlie had saved the most dangerous job for herself. Someone was going to have to pop into a (hopefully) empty corner of Angel prison, look around, and gauge the best way to get a door to Bobby. With no idea how many Angels there would be, or where, it would take improvisation and creativity. 

With little in the way of daily routine there was little point to timing their attempt. It simply occurred that they had planned as much as they could, made all the gear they would need, and created enough makeshift Angel blades for everyone to have 2. They were pretty rustic and the group took to calling them angel shivs. Everyone would wear wrist communicators Ash had designed, and everyone would carry something Charlie called an Enochian sharpie, though only Ash and Charlie knew enough Enochian to really use them. They were essentially regular sharpies that had been prayed over for an extra power boost. Everyone knew the Angel banishing sign, but that used blood, not sharpie. Suddenly everyone was armed and outfitted and it was time to go. 

Charlie and Ellen’s concession to Pamela and Jo was to allow them to stay in the Roadhouse with Ash to monitor the team’s communications (letters from the front lines Pamela had called them bitterly), and to back him up in case of trouble. Charlie would have much preferred if Pamela had stayed home, but you can’t win them all. Honestly, she loved and respected Pamela’s desire to fight. She had always known she wasn’t in love with a pushover. She knew sidelining Pamela was cruel but Charlie needed to focus.

Charlie took out her Enochian sharpie and the little group huddled by the wall behind Ash’s pool table. Charlie drew the three symbols that represented the start code for their door to the Axis Mundi. The symbols burned with a white light for a second before the door flashed to life in front of them. Ellen hugged Jo, and Charlie kissed a resigned looking Pamela.

Charlie braced herself on the wall with one hand and quickly darted her face through the door and pulled back into the bar. She had a fleeting glance of a long white corridor empty in both directions. Angel shivs on her hips and sharpie firmly in hand she stepped quickly through to the other wall. With a shaking hand she drew the symbols to run the program for the prison Trojan. The door flashed to life and she stepped through hurriedly. She faced a crisp white corridor with approximately ten stone archways opening on both sides of the corridor. 

Ellen popped in behind her.

“Did you see anybody?”

“Not a soul.” Ellen smiled a little.

A slow count to 10 later and Rufus appeared as planned. 

“Did you see anyone?” Charlie asked.

“No one.”

Charlie spoke into her wrist communicator.

“Ash?”

“I’m Here.” His voice sounded clear but a little scratchy. Like listening to a vinyl record. 

“How are you doing on tracking the location of the Angels?”

“Something’s weird with the Angel tracking. I’m not having much luck. I’ve only been able to pick up three so far.”

Charlie looked down the hall of Angel prison. Three seemed like plenty of Angels to track and avoid. She told Ash so.

“No darlin, you misunderstand. Three Angels TOTAL. In all of Heaven. And they seem to be clustered around the Garden. I can’t pick up any in the prison area at all. I’ve got no intel for you. You can come back and we can work on the code and try again, but it’s the same damn code I always use when I wanna know what the feathered folk are up to and it’s never failed me before. Maybe they figured it out and masked themselves somehow? I’m sorry. We’re blind out there.”

Ellen and Rufus looked startled. Three Angels in all of Heaven? That was impossible. 

“Do we go in blind?” Ellen asked

“It’s time. I’m sick of trying to live my afterlife knowing Bobby is trapped in here.” The question had to be asked, but Rufus answered for all of them.

Charlie looked through the nearest archway. It opened into a stone room. At the end of the room bars from wall to ceiling created a cage. A cell awaiting a prisoner. This seemed as good a place as any. Charlie would create a door from this wall to the identical wall in the actual prison. She drew the symbols carefully on the wall. Charlie stuck her face through, glanced quickly and retreated. The room looked identical, and also empty. 

“Ash, I found an empty room and I’m going in. Wish me luck.”

“Good luck” her wrist watch responded.

She smiled at Ellen and Rufus who both looked a little disconcerted.

“I’ll be back in a minute. If anything comes in here, or anything comes through that door that isn’t me or Bobby stab it and pray it dies.”

Ellen touched the handle of the shiv on her left hip. It looked like a knife Ash made in a backyard forge, because it was exactly that.

“Is praying necessary for the Angel proofing to work?”

“I don’t know, but it couldn’t hurt.” Charlie answered truthfully, then stepped through the door. 

The room on the other side lacked Rufus and Ellen’s presence and was unsettlingly quiet. Charlie crept to the entry and peered out. The hallway was empty. She snuck across the hall and darted a quick look into that room. Nothing. She snuck to the next room. Nothing. She was beginning to wonder if maybe Ash had actually been correct about there being no angels on guard.

There was a scuffing noise from a cell across the hall. Charlie approached the door cautiously. She peeked in and spotted Bobby leaning heavily against the bars of his cell. There was no guard to be seen. Still Charlie entered as carefully and quietly as she could. She was half way to Bobby when he spotted her and gave a little startled yell. He squinted at her in disbelief. 

“Charlie? Is that you? What the hell are you doing here? What the hell took you all so long? Do you know how bored I’ve been?”

Charlie was making shushing sounds and waving at him to be quiet.

“What’re you doing that for?”

“To, you know, whisper. I don’t want to alert the… guards, or whatever.” Charlie felt silly saying it and even as the words left her she felt herself becoming convinced there were no guards. She stood up a little straighter.

Bobby huffed. “Guards. I almost wish there were guards. I haven’t seen a single one of those sanctimonious bastards in ages. I haven’t seen a soul in God knows how long. It’s just been me and these bars and these walls.” 

“Well, uh, I’m here to rescue you?”

“I should sure as hell hope so. I don’t have to equipment to throw you a tea party instead.”

Charlie explained briefly that she would open a door for him to walk through that would take him to a copy of his Heaven. He was to wait there until Ash came to get him. Charlie reached her arm as far between the bars as possible and drew the signs on the stones to open his door.

“Before you go, can you tell me, do you know what happened to the Angels?”

“Haven’t got a damn clue. When they first threw me in here there were two of the fuckers always hanging around. Then one got called away for some godknowswhat and I was left here with the one. Then that sonofabitch got pulled away, and I haven’t seen a single one since.”

Charlie waved him through his door. He stepped through and it blinked out leaving an unmarked stone wall behind. Charlie walked thoughtfully without hiding herself back to her own door. Once through she faced the anxious faces of Ellen and Rufus. She called Ash.

“Ash, Bobby’s home. How are you doing on the Angel tracker?”

“Poorly. I’ve got the same 3 pigeons grouped together outside the garden.”

“Ok. change of plan. Instead of risking Ellen and Rufus on an untested FUBAR I’m going to send them back to you through the door we left from. I’ll deactivate this Trojan prison on my way out.”

There was a moment’s pause.

“Are you sure? That’s a lot more time in the Axis than we planned on.”

“I know. I can’t really justify it, but I have this really strong feeling like your Angel tracker is telling you the truth. It just feels too dead out there.”

Another pause

“Three Angels in heaven?”

“We’re coming back to you now.”

Charlie reopened the door to the Axis Mundi and stepped into the empty corridor. Across the hall she opened the door for the Roadhouse. She shepherded a slightly stunned Rufus and Ellen back to the Roadhouse. Charlie drew the markings around the door to the Trojan jail that would erase it (and hopefully everything inside) entirely. She walked back into the noise and chaos of the Roadhouse and shut the door behind her. 

Some time later a much much more complete, but sobered group sat together drinking. At first Charlie and Ash had run every test they could think of to verify their data, but every test came back the same. Sometimes there were four Angels, sometimes only two, but generally there were three Angels. In all of heaven only three Angels remained. Eventually they were forced to accept it. Ash went to fetch Bobby, and a short, enthusiastic welcome home erupted from the bar. Now the exuberance died down and each was sitting quietly contemplating to themselves what it would mean if this were really the end of the reign of Angels in Heaven.

**Author's Note:**

> Listen. I have much love for the Charlie/Pamela pairing, but very little skill. I would have loved to make this mature but I have not the words. If you see any potential in this pairing please run with it. It deserves a good home.


End file.
